BUSINESS AND TECH NEWS

Vine's six seconds of fame are over, should we care?

Vine's offering is very simple; six seconds of looped video. The company was founded in June 2012 and acquired by Twitter four months later. The app was launched on iOS in January 2013 and on Android in June of that year. It was announced on the 27th of October 2016 that Twitter will discontinue the service.

While it may not be a nice thought, I couldn't help but find myself asking "do we actually care?" I can't remember the last time I saw a Vine video posted on social media. That was, of course, until Thursday afternoon when users took to Twitter to post their favourite Vines and wonder how Twitter could even contemplate discontinuing the service.

Vine became insignificant to many social media users rather quickly. The emergence of Snapchat, Instagram Stories and Twitter Video left little room for Vine videos.

There was a time, however, when Vine had 100 million people watching its videos ever month. The six second time limit presented a challenge for creatives, looking to spread their message. This lead to the emergence of certain "Vine stars", such as Brittany Furlan.

“I was a struggling actor and I wasn’t getting any work, so I had all this pent up creative energy,” she told the Guardian. “I loved how simple it was to create and edit things, then BOOM, it was out there. I got addicted to it.”

Furlan's six second offerings generated 4.3 billion looped views, making her one of the top three Vine Stars of all time.

Furlan explained that her participation in the world of Vine turned her career around.

“Once I hit 150,000 followers I got calls from the top five talent agencies in LA. Then brands started reaching out. Now I’ve been doing movies, TV and writing. It turned into a whole career, an actual job.”

It's understandable that Vine Stars may be disappointed at its demise, but as for the rest of us, who cares?!